Rushanara Ali MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and Shadow Education Minister today grilled the Prime Minister on the unacceptable levels of youth unemployment in Britain.

At Prime Minister's Question Time, Rushanara Ali demanded answers from the Prime Minister. She said: “With almost a million young people unemployed and with the work programme in the Chancellor’s own words “underperforming” will the Prime Minister think again and introduce Labour’s Youth Jobs Guarantee?”

The Prime Minister’s response was that “the work programme has done an excellent job of putting people back to work” and had put “more people into our work force than ever before.”

Speaking after PMQs, Rushanara said, “The Prime Minister’s remarks show just how out of touch he really is, particularly with the situation facing young people in my constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow and many other places around the UK. There are nearly 1 million young people not in education, employment or training in this country who will be completely unconvinced by Cameron’s comments as their talents go wasted and the government's work programme fails to help them get jobs."

Rushanara added: “Labour’s Youth Jobs Guarantee is a real alternative to meaningless reassurances from the Prime Minister about the prospects facing young people.”

Labour is offering a real jobs guarantee of six months' work to those aged 18 to 24 who had been jobless for a year. Labour leader Ed Miliband has been very clear on this issue, saying of the Youth Jobs Guarantee that “the only answer to the job crisis is jobs.”